Nick Cannon opens up about why he attended Minneapolis protests

Nick Cannon doesn’t want things to go back to normal. The old normal, writes Cannon in an op-ed published in Variety, might have worked for some but as the last week has made incredibly clear, there are so many people that the ‘old normal’ worked actively against. Cannon made the trip to Minneapolis this past weekend to march with demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd, the Black man who was killed when a white officer kneeled on his neck for just under nine minutes. The officer has since been charged with Floyd’s murder, but as Cannon and many others see it, this is only the beginning of a move towards justice in the real sense of the word. There’s more work to be done.“I want us to focus on our humanity and dismantling racist systems that we don’t need that perpetuate crimes of inequality and oppress communities of color all over our country,” writes Cannon. “We have to dismantle all of those systems that this country was built on.”[video_embed id='1969019']RELATED: Michael B. Jordan, Halsey, Jamie Foxx attend Black Lives Matter protests[/video_embed]

 

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A post shared by NICK CANNON (@nickcannon) on May 29, 2020 at 5:11pm PDT

The Masked Singer host and father of three called for people and governments to totally rethink the concept of policing in America, writing, “If we’re going to talk about what the solutions are, it has to be complete reform of not just a police department but of policing in general. I think it starts by removing the word ‘police,’” he explained. “Why be a police officer when you can be a peace officer? When you see a police officer, you’re supposed to feel safe. They’re supposed to protect you. My kids are scared of police officers. In their minds, they’re the bad guys.”Beyond police reform, there also needs to be a larger shift in the mindset of people who genuinely believe that they aren’t racist, yet continue to prop up systems and structures that are, including policing, the prison system, and laws that disproportionately target Black people. “There are more Black men in jail today then there were enslaved [in the 19th century],” writes Cannon. “These are concepts that people overlook daily. Unfortunately it takes a matter like George Floyd for people to say ‘I didn’t know this. It didn’t hit my feed. It wasn’t part of our daily conversation.’”What Cannon seems to be advocating is the concept of anti-racism, a form of fighting against racist systems and institutions that requires us to be active and involved. It is no longer enough to say that we aren’t racist. We all have to act.“I don’t want to go back to our old normal — clearly that was killing us,” he says. “What we need is a new normal, a new paradigm.”[video_embed id='1966986']Tyrone Edwards shares why he can no longer remain silent about racism[/video_embed]